Presenting fresh insights on the internal dynamics and global contexts that shaped foreign relations in early modern Japan, this book challenges the largely accepted wisdom that the Tokugawa shogunate, guided by an ideology of seclusion, stifled intercourse with the outside world, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Presenting fresh insights on the internal dynamics and global contexts that shaped foreign relations in early modern Japan, Robert I. Hellyer challenges the still largely accepted wisdom that the Tokugawa shogunate, guided by an ideology of seclusion, stifled intercourse with the outside world, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Figures, Maps, and Tables Conventions Introduction 1. Interdependent Partners: The Shogunate, Satsuma, and Tsushima 2. The Reaction against Globalization 3. Guarded Engagement 4. Domestic Demand and Foreign Trade 5. Local Japan Encounters the West 6. The Transition in Foreign Trade 7. Defending the Domain and the Realm Conclusion: The End of Domain Agency and the Adoption of International Relations Works Cited Index